Letter to the Editor

Even after a resounding defeat of conservative principals in the last election, the attacks on Social Security have not stopped and it appears that those assaults will not end anytime soon.

Social Security is not "broke" and with a little tweaking it can last forever according to the AARP and many others. It will pay all benefits due until 2037 and 75 percent of benefits for many years to come after that date. That's without any tweaking whatsoever!

So why do Romney/Ryan, the elitist right wing, and Fox News keep telling us that the program is headed for disaster and will eventually disappear? Could it possibly be that they are doing the bidding of the wealthy on Wall Street - those big Republican donors in the 2 percent that are so eager to get their hands on the $3- or $4-trillion surplus that Social Security will accumulate by 2023?

If Romney/Ryan and their buddies (and Bush before) had their way and privatized Social Security, just think of all those telephone calls you'd be getting from every slick stock salesman on the block who would be urging you (and Grandma and crazy Aunt Alice) to buy the latest, greatest, and - of course - once in a lifetime opportunity to ever come your way. We all know how wonderful most of those investments turn out, don't we?

Be careful who you vote for, citizens. You might be giving away one of the finest and most reliable social programs ever invented in the U.S. If Social Security is destroyed, not only will retirees suffer but widows and widowers with young children, orphans and many others will also be cast adrift.

How about the tweaks mentioned earlier? One proposal is to eventually raise the retirement age to 70? I don't think that's a good idea. That might be acceptable for someone who spends their working years at a desk, but I don't think that's very fair to the person who is digging ditches or performing other important but laborious tasks for a living. Besides, in this hi-tech oriented world we now live in, shouldn't we be helping people retire earlier to make room for younger out-of-work folks whose jobs have been swallowed up by computers?

The tweak I favor after looking at all the others is raising FICA taxes to include all income and not just up to the $106,800 limit. That move might even result in lower FICA taxes for all of us rather than becoming just another tax break for the rich.

Regards,

Charlie Loomis

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Letter to the Editor

Even after a resounding defeat of conservative principals in the last election, the attacks on Social Security have not stopped and it appears that those assaults will not end anytime soon. Social